Well Tubularsock has been so busy that leaving the underground bunker hasn’t been an option. Sure the windows are all clean now but when you are in the position to know EVERYTHING well it just fucking keeps you busy. Have you ever spent some real quality time watching the Matrix? And I’m not talking about the movie here. Tubularsock MEANS the MATRIX!

Now thank the Gods that that Ukraine issue has been settled. The U.S. has helped kill as many Ukrainians as necessary to bring democracy to the Ukraine …. that is exceptionalism, really.

The damn Russians keep voting at the ballot box to break away from Ukraine and return to the Russian State but the international community (you know, the U.S. and Europe) say voting is against international law and won’t honor the votes taken.

But the U.S. and Europe all agree that overthrowing a democratically elected Ukraine and then hand picking the new leader, Arseniy Yatsenyuk works well with international law. Funny how that works.

So often what would appear to be the opposite as it should be is the way it is projected to be …………. now who would question that?

But enough summary. What Tubularsock wishes to focus on is that Joe Biden’s son, Hunter has joined the board of directors of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma Holdings Ltd.

Now, Tubularsock knows what you are thinking. This is all being set up because Who’s-Your-Daddy-Hunter is the son of the Vice President of the United States of America.

Well, there’s more. Hunter’s appointment came a few weeks after Devon Archer. Both Hunter and Devon are part of the investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners which are affiliated with Rosemont Capital, a private-equity firm. *****Think Carlyle Group. You remember the private-equity firm that the Bush family and the Saudi Royal family made so much money with during the Iraq war.******

Alittle side note: Rosemont Capital private-equity firm was co-founded by Devon Archer and Christopher Heinz, Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson and heir to H.J. Heinz Co. ketchup family.

Wars seem to be good for private-equity firms. Especially if you are on an inside track. Now isn’t that interesting?

Now Devon Archer was a mover-and-shaker-fund-raiser for John Kerry and served as co-chair of the national finance committee for Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. He also just happened to be Christopher Heinz, Kerry’s stepson college roommate.

What a small world.

Now I know what you are thinking. This is all being set up because Who’s-His-Step-Daddy’s-Friend-Devon is the “friend” of the stepson of the Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Well, there’s more.

Now the timing of Hunter’s appointment seems to fit in close to Joe Biden’s visit to the Ukraine and it just happens that Joe is going to drop by Cyprus for a visit as well. Funny that Cyprus, according to Businessweek is where Burisma Holdings Ltd. is officially located.

But don’t fret!The real truth is “As a new member of the board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine,” Hunter Biden said regarding his new appointment.

Well there you have it. It’s all explained now ……… let’s go back to sleep.

Tubularsock is all for transparency so it might be interesting to look just a little deeper at Hunter. You know, for the fun of it.

Hunter Biden’s business activities had attracted attention while he worked as a lobbyistwhen his father was a U.S. Senator and those “business activities” came under scrutiny at that time.

When Barack Obama was a Senator he sought more than $3.4 million in earmarks for clients of Hunter Biden, and succeeded in getting $192,000 for St. Xavier University near Chicago, according to public disclosure records.

Hunter Biden gave up his partnership in his Washington lobbying firm after his father became Barack Obama’s running mate in 2008.

The Wall Street Journal in the early part of 2009 reported that Hunter Biden and his uncle had run a fund of funds that was being marketed exclusively by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford’s companies.

Funny thing there was that Mr. Stanford later was sentenced to 110 years in prison for masterminding a $7 billion Ponzi scheme.

The Wall Street Journalalso reported at the time that Biden’s lawyer said the fund terminated the relationship and offered to return $2.7 million in investment that companies controlled by Mr. Stanford had given the fund. He said the Bidens had never met Mr. Stanford.

But hey, business is business so all that is just cash under the bridge.

Now really, Tubularsock hates to tell you but once you open up the gas valve well …….

there’s more!

Just why are these guys interested in Burisma Holdings Ltd. anyway, except for of course, to “. . . contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine”?

Well that is pretty obvious.

“Burisma is a private oil and gas company founded in 2002, under joint activity agreements with Ukrainian state-owned producers, and quickly grew to become the largest private gas producer in Ukraine. The company’s average daily output stood at 10.5 thousand barrels of oil equivalent per day in September 2013, and could double that figure within two years. All of the company’s gas is sold to industrial customers in Ukraine.” (International Business Times)

Burisma is a sitting duck when it comes to future profit in natural gas. The Ukraine’s largest energy source is natural gas accounting for 38 percent of total primary energy production during 2011.

At the moment the Russian gas company Gazprom currently satisfy most of Ukraine’s energy needs. Russia has recently stated that the Ukraine will have to pay for their natural gas needs in advance in cash if they want further deliveries.

Remember Gazprom also provides something in the range of 40% of Europe’s natural gas needs.

Therefore for Ukraine to reduce it’s dependency of natural gas from Russia in the future Burisma is well-positioned to boost its share of the domestic market.

And when Gazprom backs off the cost of natural gas will increase and who stands to gain in profit from that? Let’s be clear ……. not the Ukrainian people!

HEY, SOME DIE, SOME PROFIT. BUSINESS AS USUAL. THANK YOU AMERICA.

And to get even more convoluted Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La) the head of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has said that instability in Ukraine makes the case for building the Keystone XL oil pipeline in the United States. Sure it does ……..

“Americans look at what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine — I think it sends shivers up their spine and it should,” said Landrieu, who accused European countries of being “timid” in confronting President Vladimir Putin over Russia’s aggressive actions in Ukraine, a former Soviet bloc state. (AP)

Well the only “shivers up their spine”Americans should have is the level of bull shit Mary is shoveling for the oil companies! But Landrieu also argued that the need for energy independence in the United States is greater than ever but neglected to explain that the KeystoneXL oil pipeline is for oil export NOT for domestic use. So the only people that will profit from it are NOT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

So what we have in the Ukraine is the new oligarchs’ playground and the people that will bear the hurt and the loss are the Ukrainian people while the profit will all be concentrated in the hands of the few.

There is so much bullshit around this Ukraine mis-adventure that it is starting to make “regular crap” look good!

Now I was talking to a highly educated friend of mine just the other day and he was asking why is it that Tubularsock “likes” Putin and didn’t Tubularsock realize that Russia was posing a threat to the Ukraine by concentrating troops along its boarders?

Well Tubularsock wasn’t surprised by this limited view because he keeps up with current news by reading Newsweek and Time Magazines. And he believes he’s “informed”!

Well sure, the guy has a stressful job and limited time to “keep up” with the world. What with all the different countries doing different things EVERY day and all.

Why not get it ALL your news under one fast-third-grade-level-read-umbrella?

Now, far be it for Tubularsock to go off on Newsweek and Time Magazines except to say that Tubularsock wouldn’t use either even as toilet paper. In part because I think one or both are only on line now and not in physical form any longer which causes a logistical problem as toilet paper. And the other reason is then what would I do with the New York Times?

Oh my, Tubularsock does digress!

Now there seems to be a bit of a disagreement between John Kerry’s view of the Ukraine and what is happening and RT’s (Russia Today News) view of the Ukraine and what is happening. No surprise there!

John (you remember him, right …. Secretary of State) called RT a “propaganda bullhorn” and it was pushing Putin’s “fantasy”. My, my.

Well according to DIPNOTE the U.S. Department of State “Official Blog” posted by Richard Stengel : that Kerry’s remarks resulted in “. . . a predictable howl of protest from RT’s editor, who claimed the State Department knows little about what is really happening in Ukraine today and had the audacity to request an apology.”

Now Richard Stengel continued with, “I spent seven years as the managing editor of TIME magazine [now that’s clear] before joining the State Department. I understand the difference between news, propaganda and opinion. Propaganda is the deliberate dissemination of information that you know to be false or misleading in order to influence an audience.”

Well Richard seems, to Tubularsock, to be the one who is propagating “falsehoods” when it comes to the Ukraine and if Kerry doesn’t really know what RT is pointing out then he is truly an idiot!

Let Tubularsock just lead you through a few of the things RT has brought to the attention of the world and how Richard Stengel and John Kerry seem to be the ones who are “misleading” and attempting to twist the information.

Last week it was claimed by RT that the United States had “invested” $5 Billion in regime change in the Ukraine. Richard Stengel says that that is a “ludicrous assertion”.

Yet it was Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Victoria Nuland who told a business group on December 13, 2013 that “. . . we have invested more than $5 billion in what was needed for Ukraine to achieve its European aspirations.”

In addition remember the intercepted, phone call where Victoria Nuland said her choice was to replace Yanukovych was Arseniy Yatsenyuk. The call was to U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk ended up as Prime Minister after the coup. Which shows collusion by the United States with the U.S. and European banking interests.

But not a word about that from Kerry or Stengel. They act like it was a natural “democratic” process. Like the CIA involvement in the process was akin to boys scouts helping a little old lady across the street.

Nor does Kerry or Stengel take on the issue of the dominance of Neo-Nazis in the new created Ukrainian Government as exposed by RT.

Now in Eastern Ukraine there was the incident cited by Kerry at the Geneva Conference that had been called to reduce tensions in Ukraine. Kerry said that, “Just in the last couple of days, notices were sent to Jews in one city indicating that they had to identify themselves as Jews. And obviously, the accompanying threat implied is – or threatened – or suffer the consequences, one way or the other.”

But a few day before Kerry’s speech that bit of information had been found to be the work of pro-coup operators NOT the pro-Russian Ukraine supporters.

Yet Kerry sited the information any way as if it were true. And he has the nerve to call RT a “propaganda bullhorn”?

It appears that what RT exposes The State Department just doesn’t discuss and thereby claims that it is RT that is doing the PROPAGANDA!

There is also the total lack of any discussion in the maimed-stream-media in the U.S. of the breaking of the deal made with Russia that NATO would not push for an eastward expansion which is why Ukraine has been overthrown by the U.S. and NATO backed cronies. It is NATO and the U.S. that has broken the agreed understanding with Russia not some aggressive move by the Russians!

The Russian move is a response. They, in this case, are not the aggressor!

Well the beat goes on. And the “free press” in the U.S. are so busy licking the asses of the government just like they did over Iraq that they have become again the government’s mouth piece.

Few in the maimed-stream-media do any investigation of ANYTHING with the exception of the detailed pictures of Kim Kardashian’s last bikini photo shoot!

Where RT, Al-Jazeera and CCTV (the new English-language programming set up by China) all give a more honest view of the Ukrainian mess than any press in the U.S.

Now this isn’t to say that one doesn’t have to be awake to bias from these news organization. But, if you try to broaden your news reading you will be able to find a broader world view than just “American Exceptionalism”.

It was just a couple of years ago that Hillary Clinton was saying that the U.S. was “. . . “losing the information war”. And just couldn’t figure out why.

Well, let Tubularsock let you in on a little secret that he has discovered and that is that more and more of the American people are just sick and tired of “. . . the U.S. corporate media’s regurgitation of the manifold and manifestly deceitful justifications for U.S. actions abroad” as Ray McGovern (former CIA intelligence – Soviet Foreign Policy Branch) so clearly stated.